Oberservation: Some of these high quality young rums completely outclass whisky of the same age. Counterpoint: Apples and Oranges though.

Hampden 7 yo 2010 Velier 62%

Thick treacly yet salty and citric sour. Brine and blackened bananas, fusel oils galore. Bags of Nano Nano candy which I cannot help but get in this sweetish style. A litre of kerosene mixed with a litre of cane sugar syrup. High ester stuff. Powerful but oddly drinkable – perhaps it is because this one wants to lean sweeter, with ribbons of caramel, black liquorice candy and sarsaparilla, instead of wanting to kick your teeth in. The trade off is that it’s a bit of a social butterfly too, and after the effusive pleasures of the hello, it’s flitted onwards and you’re left a little bewildered where the party went.

Long Pond 15 yo 2003 1200/1300 ‘Continental Flavoured’ TECA 63%

Right this one wants to kick your teeth in. Gone is much of the sweetness, but now it’s not just powerful it’s immense. Full on pungency – the ester count seems to have doubled. No messing around with sweet-dank fruit or candy, this one ratchets up the fusel oils and hydrocarbons, add molten salt, and pure essential oils of aniseed, licqourice, cinnamon, and black pepper. Distilled compost and liquefied medicinal barks. Despite the viscosity and concentration it remains in painfully sharp focus on the tongue, and careful with the sips, you cannot help but wince. The fruit does make a show on the tongue though with candied limes and dried mango, and sweet camphor. Colour me impressed. If there was anything to add however it must be the careful observation that beyond the immediacy of these rums, one does miss the complexity and long sensuous linger of old Scotch on the palate. That’s what time and careful aging does for you. Perhaps also true of people.